"West Lake" Long Jin, 2019 from 喫茶去茶社 (chi cha qu tea house in Shanghai)

I recently received this "west lake" LJ from a friend in Shanghai. He tells me this is 2019 harvest.

Seems to me it is bud and 2-3 leaves predominantly. Shape and size are a bit heterogeneous. Color is evenly green-yellow. Hard to tell from pics, but it is a bit more yellow than green.

What you cannot tell from pics: there is white fluff on the side of container but not on leaves. Dry leaf has very little scent. When wet, there is a subtle scent of green beans.

I brewed gongfu style 7 g / 200 mL at 80 C for 30 sec / 30 sec / 40 sec / 50 sec / 1 min / 1 min 30 sec / 2 min / 5 min

Had acceptable taste and aromas for 5 steeps before tapering off.

Aromas of sweet green beans and some nuts are there. Taste is distinctively sweet (mostly fresh corn), but also has a slight aspartame sweetness. Minerality is strong providing good structure. There is also a mild umami. Almost no bitterness in taste, but there is definitely astringency on the tongue and throat long after swallowing until the 3rd steeping.

I suspect this is post qing ming and the overall grade is low. However, i feel this might be an heirloom cultivar instead of LJ 43 but cannot be sure. I am told this was expensive. This is definitely not worth the price if it is more than $10 / 100 grams.

Comments

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